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Asus PadFone Infinity: Best of MWC 2013

Asus’s
PadFone range isn’t the most popular one out there, but that doesn’t
mean the company is not putting its full weight behind the phone-tablet
combo. The PadFone Infinity comes with improved internals and competes
directly with other 2013 flagships such as the HTC One and Sony Xperia
Z. The display is a 5-inch Super IPS+ LCD and the 1080p
resolution means you get 441 pixels per inch. The PadFone Infinity’s
tablet component, or what Asus calls the Infinity Station, retains the
10.1-inch screen, but there’s full HD resolution here too; it now has a
resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, up from 1280 x 800 pixels in the last
model.

Two HD displays in one, the Asus PadFone Infinity

The Infinity packs a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chip clocked at
1.7GHz and an Adreno 320 GPU, a combination that is gracing more and
more flagships. The RAM is a healthy 2GB. Buyers can choose from 32GB or
the 64GB version of the PadFone Infinity. However, there is no microSD
card slot, which is an odd decision considering it could have easily
been fitted into the PadFone’s tablet component without making many
adjustments.

Battery life on the PadFone Infinity sounds promising. There is a
2400 mAh battery within the phone, which the company claims can give
you up to 19 hours of 3G talk time and 40 hours when docked into
Infinity Station. The dock also has a 5000 mAh battery and can fully
recharge the docked PadFone Infinity up to three times. The Infinity
ships with Android 4.2, so at least the software experience should be
smooth.

Unfortunately, Asus has fouled up the pricing of the Asus
PadFone Infinity. The combined price is around £800 (approx Rs 65,000),
which makes it a very expensive proposition any way you look at it.

The display tech is a key new ingredient in the Infinity mix – the phone
part boasts a Super IPS 5-inch retina-beating display at 441ppi which,
while looks stunning, doesn't appear that much better than any other top
end Android handset (hello, Samsung Galaxy S3). The iPhone's retina display is 326ppi, if you want to know the figures.

As
with the Padfone 2 (which is coming to more countries including the
UK), the slide in and out motion works exceedingly well both in terms of
the physical movement – it's completely secure and rubber gromits mean
the phone doesn't fall out – and the software, which switches from one
screen to the other when you dock and un-dock.

The Infinity was announced by Asus' Jonny Shih on stage at MWC 2013,
where he was joined by Qualcomm's Paul Jacobs – the new device packs a
1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 CPU and uses the US firm's
third-generation LTE tech.

This
thing is fast; there's absolutely no lag but then you'd expect that
with a quad-core chip. Asus reckons it's possible to get 19 hours of 3G
talk time out of the device when it's all fully charged.

The
Padfone Station dock converts the phone into a 10.1-inch tablet with
1,920 x 1,200 resolution. It can also be used as a battery pack, which
gives you three times the battery life and it also has its own 1MP
front-mounted camera and a micro USB port.

The
phone/tablet combo has the same-style aluminium unibody design housing
as the Padfone 2. In terms of the other key specs there is 2GB of RAM,
plus NFC and 64GB of flash memory.

The
tablet is able to replicate many of the phone's functions and also has a
dialler. Undocking takes you to the same app on the phone. The tablet
can also output 1080p Full HD video via an adapter for its micro USB
socket. The Infinity can also capture 8 still photos per second in burst mode.

Asus
previewed the Padfone Infinity includes Echo, essentially the same as
Apple's Siri, but with some typically Asus effects. Say 'cheese' and it
will take a photo of you.

Early verdict

The
Padfone is a thing of beauty. It's not for everyone but many of us do
have a use-case for it. If you have a tablet yet find yourself using
more things on your phone then Asus believes you'll be in its Padfone
queue.

The
device is certainly a looker and does have a lot to offer - the
smartphone itself is superb. It does have a premium price point of 999
Euros though - $1325 or AU$1287 - and so it will be interesting to see
if Asus can shift them. In the UK, Asus is launching the Padfone 2 for
now, though it hints the Padfone Infinity will arrive - probably around
£799.